


Whenever He Needed Them

by PatienceYieldsFocus



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 17:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19178332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatienceYieldsFocus/pseuds/PatienceYieldsFocus
Summary: A mission gone wrong leaves Keith struggling to keep an important promise.





	Whenever He Needed Them

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure what I feel about this story yet, and I'll probably edit it again later? But here it is. Please review! It'll be appreciated.

“Keith. If you think this is right… then we won’t try to stop you. But just know we’ll be here for you whenever you need us.”

 

Keith felt a warmth spread through his body and a smile that he couldn’t push back slid onto his face, “I know you are. And I  _can’t_  tell you how much that means to me.”

 

-

 

The ship shook as it entered the planet’s atmosphere. The cargo hold was filled with galra. Masked, blades sharpened and ready to leap down the square-shaped hole in the ground, down to a new battlefield, an undetermined fate before them.

 

The Blade of Marmora had gotten the distress signal twenty minutes ago, and it would take several more minutes for Voltron to show up. For now, all they could do was buy them some time. The leader of the small island had warned them it would be  _bad_. Inhabitants were being beaten, tied up and some might’ve been killed. Their defences had been rendered useless within minutes of the attack.

  
Several blades got to their feet as the hatch slowly opened. Every Blade’s attention diverted to Kolivan, Keith included.

 

“An entire ship-full of Empire soldiers landed are ready to battle us to the death,” He said, his voice muffled by his mask but as crisp and loud as ever, “The Rebels are closer than Voltron are. The paladins are caught up in another battle at the end of this solar system, so do whatever you must to win this battle. Now go!”

 

A couple of the Blades headed toward the hatch and leapt to the ground in a practised fashion. The hatch closed, leaving only Keith, Kolivan and three other galra waiting for the ship to finally land.

  
  
  
  


-

 

“You broke protocol.”

 

Keith looked away from Regris, then lifted his hood, deactivating the mask, glaring at the tall galra in front of him.

 

“I had too!” He snapped.

 

Kolivan lifted his own hood, whilst speaking in that familiar way. He seemed to always be annoyed with Keith, one way or another.

 

“You didn’t consider that something could’ve happened to you! That would make two men down instead of one!”

 

 _Wow, for a minute I was almost convinced he cared_.

 

“Every member of the Blade of Marmora understands that the mission is more important than the individual.” Keith looked back at Regris, trying to control his anger. “This isn’t Voltron.” He looked back at Kolivan, managing to calm his fury before he said or did anything reckless.

 

“I understand that. In  _Voltron_ , we would’ve gone back to save Regris.  _I_  went back to save the mission.” He dug into the pocket of his suit for a device. “Regris had the intel! Getting  _him_  and  _it_  back on the ship was worth the risk.” He dropped it into Kolivan’s hand, not daring to look back at the leader, a little worried that he might see right through the lie.

 

Regris was a teammate - but most importantly, a friend. He couldn’t leave him behind.

 

_This isn’t Voltron!_

 

-

 

Once they left the ship, a blaster almost hit Keith. Kolivan managed to deflect it with his blade before he charged into battle with the offender. Keith wasted no time before he also sought out a target.

  


The mission sounded simple enough, but actually achieving the end goal was going to be a challenge. They had to take out as many members of the Empire as possible, kill if they must. The rebels were on their way and would take out any fighters in the sky. After the battle, they would have to wait - probably with the Rebels - until Voltron arrived to make an Alliance and settle their castle down on the planet for two to three days to ensure the planet’s complete safety.

 

Keith’s sword clashed with another not even a minute into the battle. His opponent was tall - much taller than Keith was - so he’d have to try to use this to his advantage. Keith remembered spending hours on the training deck, fighting against Kolivan or a taller Blade to ready himself for a situation like this. He was prepared.

 

He managed to knock the taller out not even five minutes later before he fought another soldier. He forced himself not to think of the safety of the other blades - but his months spent as a Voltron paladin made this a hard habit to kill. After he took down his third opponent, his eyes were already wandering to his teammates.

 

Kolivan seemed unfazed by the battle, fighting three soldiers at a time with ease. The other blades moved in a rhythm, in tune with one another, just like they did during training. Keith’s eyes stopped when it landed near the Empire’s ship. Aliens who looked like hairless, yellow and orange striped galra were standing near the entrance, hands tied behind their backs.

 

Prisoners.

 

They’d already taken prisoners.

 

Keith kicked the next soldier coming toward him, knocking him out with the back of his blade. He hit another with the flat of the sword, sending them tumbling into their teammates. He needed to get those prisoners to safety. He skidded to a halt once he arrived. Quickly, he looked to see if anyone was following him before he headed toward the first one, who yelped in fear and jumped back.

 

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” Keith assured, deactivating his Marmora mask, “I’m a member of the Blade of Marmora. Please, let me free you.”

 

The alien swallowed, his eyes wide in fear. One of them walked up to him, her yellow catlike eyes calculating, large ears pulled slightly back.

 

“We do not have much of a choice here but to trust you,” She said in a hoarse-whispery voice, “The ship… they turned this one into a bomb. Most of the soldiers do not know. It’ll destroy anything up to five miles from here.”

 

Keith’s eyes widened, “How do you know? When’s it-?”

 

“I heard our captors speaking,” She explained, “A fleet will arrive in ten doboshes to take over the planet. The bomb will go off in twenty.”

 

 _Twenty doboshes_.

 

He had to warn Kolivan. But first, he needed to focus on the prisoners. He cut the bonds from behind the alien’s back, “Help me with the others!”

 

The others were quickly freed. The aliens thanked him and started to get away from the ship. Keith kept an eye out, making sure nobody saw them escape before he turned back to head toward Kolivan to warn him. That’s when a clawed hand - rougher and more vicious than Kolivan’s cautious, firm one - latched onto his upper arm, claws digging into the thick material of his suit.

 

“I don’t think so,  _paladin_ ,” A harsh whisper sounded next to Keith’s ear, his blade harshly yanked from his hand, “You aren’t telling them anything.”

 

The claws dug deeper into the suit, not hard enough yet to pierce his skin. Keith was yanked harshly back into the ship. No, he couldn’t let this happen!

 

“KOLIVA-” He hit the wall of the galran ship with a gasp. Clenching his teeth, he glared up at his offender, “You… are underestimating the Blade… of Marmora.”

 

The soldier snorted, “I don’t think so, paladin.” He pressed a button on the wall, “Sentries! Seize him!”

 

 _Not today_ , Keith thought fiercely. With a growl, he jumped up before he remembered he no longer had his blade with him. He charged forward anyway, landing a solid punch to the galra’s chest. Unfortunately, this had no effect on the soldier. He landed a punch on Keith’s jaw, sending him back toward the floor where a mechanical hand grabbed him. He struggled in the sentry’s grip as more and more metal hands restrained him, holding him to the floor.

 

He glared up at them, and then at the soldier. The galra laughed darkly, “Good riddance.”

 

He turned and left the ship. The door started to close. He could barely move but struggled hard against the metallic hold. The door would soon shut and then  _nobody_  could hear his warning. He hoped Kolivan would at least hear him if he yelled hard enough. Maybe he’d know to leave the ship - he’d figure it out. Galra - other than Keith, of course - had enhanced hearing, right? Their ears were big enough for it.

 

 _Please be true. Please for the love of quiznack, share_ that _similarity with cats!_

 

He focussed everything on his voice and then, “KOLIVAN!” He screamed as loud as he could. He was not as embarrassed as usual when his voice cracked. Mostly because right after his final, desperate attempt at a warning, another metallic hand wrapped around his head and then  _smacked_ him down.

 

He was out like a light before the heavy door shut with a  _thud_.

 

-

 

A quiet alarm woke him, a bright red light flashed before his eyelids, his head pounded with each flash. Moaning, he slowly opened his eyes, the world spinning around him. There were no more metallic hands holding him down, the door of the galra ship was closed shut. A vague memory of why he was here came back to him, his chest burned with anxiety. There was a bomb somewhere… and he needed to tell Kolivan. He needed to warn him.

 

He pushed himself up with his hands and his vision swam terribly, turning the room 180 degrees and back. He closed his eyes, letting out a shuddering breath.

 

Bomb. Fight. Needed. Tell. Kolivan.

 

He moved one leg, placing it on the ground, leaning on his knee. And in one final go, he stood on both legs. The world swam before him again, and he felt himself stumbling back. He blocked his fall quickly. He couldn’t think… nothing made sense. The only thing that made vaguely sense to him was to find the others and tell them about a bomb.

 

He’ll remember where the bomb came from when he found them again. He stumbled over to where the door was, leaning on it to catch his breath. His side flared in pain at every breath he took. He looked around for a control panel. The red lights flashed on. And they disappeared. They gave temporary lighting to the suddenly darkened ship, gave Keith a peak on where to look. But there was nothing. He could feel himself starting to hyperventilate.

 

He banged hard on the door, “Hey!” He called out in a weak voice, “Bomb!”

 

Nobody answered. Why wasn’t anyone answering? And why did his head hurt so much!? The red lights flashed again, the annoying alarm blaring in his ears. Well, the aesthetic didn’t help his headache at all. He pressed his hands over his ears. He searched for anything to turn off the alarms.  _Why_  were there alarms? How long had he been out?

 

His blood ran cold.

 

Oh…

 

Oh no.

 

The ship was going to blow up.

 

And he was trapped inside of it.

 

His foggy, messy, confused brain finally formed a reasonable response.

 

He needed to get out of here.

 

But how? He didn’t even know how long he had left. He could try and punch the door open. Before he could even think of the consequences, his fist collided with the metal. He heard a crack, which couldn’t be a good sign, especially since his fist hurt  _a lot_  now.

 

But he couldn’t stay here anymore. Ignoring the pain, he used the wall as support, rushing through the hallway. He needed a way out. Anytime now, he could be blown to bits. And that would  _not_  be good. The hallway was illuminated in red, the alarm blaring annoyingly. His head pounded. He started to realise he put more and more pressure on the wall until he was leaning against it, shoving himself forward.

 

Grounding his teeth, Keith pushed himself onward, forcing himself to move. The red haze flickered on and off, on and off. That’s when he saw it. As the red light flickered off, Keith saw another light, and it looked like natural light from outside. Praying that it wasn’t just his brain making things up, he picked up the pace.

 

The light became clearer and clearer as he approached it until he was standing at a window. Instead of feeling relief, his body filled with dread. Outside of the window, it didn’t look like the battlefield. Water lapped against the windows of the ship, slowly sinking deeper and deeper. The alarms became louder - more urgent.

Keith fell to his knees, out of breath and probably hyperventilating. If the ship was going to blow up, he was doomed. And if it wasn’t, he was still sinking along with the ship into the water. How did this even happen? They  _were_  fighting on the edge of a cliff but Keith hadn’t looked down. There must’ve been a ravine - or most probably a lake. He doubted ravines were this deep.

 

The alarm blared again, the red light illuminating the steadily darkening window.

He supposed there was a lot of good coming from this. Bombs blowing up underwater didn’t cause as much damage as it did on the land, and that meant nobody was going to get hurt. If the mission was successful, he was finally able to do something  _right_  as a member of the Blade of Marmora. He finally followed through with an important Blade rule… this was his first, truly successful mission.

 

_The mission is more important than the individual._

 

The mission… was more important than him. He was just one, small part of the universe. In the Garrison, they were shown how small they actually were. Compared to the whole universe, their galaxy wasn’t even a pixel - it was far from it. You couldn’t see a human being walking when you were on a plane. The war was too big to concern itself on the loss of one soldier. They wouldn’t ever know what happened to him.

 

He took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself.

 

The alarm pitched higher.

 

His head pounded in response.

 

Shiro’s face appeared at the forefront of his mind. He was so clear, almost right in front of him. The other paladins… Coran and Allura. The space mice, Pidge’s strange ‘garbage guinea pigs’. A promise.

 

A silent promise he made to himself the day he left the Castle of Lions for the Blade of Marmora.

 

He’d promised himself he’d return.

 

The Castle of Lions was the place he felt most comfortable to call home.

 

Regris had told Keith about his own home - a small planet where he grew up and trained for war before he found Kolivan. He once said he’d love to return. He had nothing left except for his memories as a ‘kit’ which Keith assumed was the galran word for ‘child’. He hadn’t gotten the chance before a bomb blew him up.

 

Regris’ wish was taken from him at the sound of that bomb. But this ship hadn’t blown up yet, and Keith never broke his promises.

 

He had to pull himself together and fight like he always did. He got to his feet, the pitch of the alarm pounding in his head, making it incredibly difficult to form coherent thoughts.

 

This was a galran ship… there had to be escape pods here. He could try and take one of them out of here. Close it up and ram right through the hull before the ship blew up. It was probably not going to work and he’d surely get killed on the way to the fighters. But he had to try something.

 

He ran through the hallway, keeping close to the wall. The lights flashed before him. By the time he reached the fifth door he had to unlock with his hand, the alarms had gone up another pitch. This time more urgent. He was running out of time.

 

He ran into the room and didn’t take time to celebrate when he saw two fighters lined up against a wall. Sentries guarded the pods. He stood frozen as they charged toward him. He ducked under a blow from a coming sentry and tripped the next with his arm. Someone yanked him up by his arm. He turned his body and kicked it, falling to the floor in front of another reaching robot.

 

He rolled out of the way and made a beeline for the nearest fighter. A blast went off and his shoulder burned. His head spun but he kept going. He opened the door, closing it on a sentry’s hand. He made it.

 

The sentry’s hand clenched, breaking into the metal, another metallic hand joining the other. Keith sat at the pilot’s chair and turned the ship on, the engines coming to life. He pressed a button to close everything on the ship, only keeping the oxygen levels high enough to keep him alive.

 

The ship rose, but that didn’t stop the sentry. The door was pulled open a little more. Another sentry sprung on top of the ship, gun pointed straight at the window. Keith pushed the controls forward, ramming right into the wall, crushing the sentry. Another loud  _creak_  came from the door.

He rammed the ship into the wall, anxiety rising in his chest.

 

_Come on, come on!_

 

He reversed the ship again, crashing into the wall at full speed. Nothing. He did it again, and again, and again. The wall didn’t even take a little bit of damage.  _Why_  wasn’t it working!? The door creaked again, and the sentry yanked open the door. It looked at Keith and pointed its blaster right at him. He dove out of the way, the blast knocking out the already damaged window.

 

The alarms went one level higher, a crackling voice from the comms announced he had ten seconds left. He had no time to lose. He ran right toward the sentry, a blast knocking him on his chest but he moved on, jumping onto the sentry, knocking it on its back, hurrying to the second fighter.

 

He reversed the ship, looking at the damaged fighter and sentry getting up from the ground and a plan quickly formed in his mind. He looked at the control pad, trying to figure out which symbols would allow him to use a laser. But everything was just gibberish. He pressed buttons at random, which was a bad idea. The ship flew up toward the ceiling, sparks igniting in various parts of the ship.

 

He had at least four seconds left.

 

With that thought, he pushed the controls forward, knocking into the sentry and the other fighter.

 

A hole in the wall.

 

He reversed the ship and flew forward again, trying his luck with pushing random buttons again. The ship’s gravity turned off, the oxygen levels fell, then rose, the lights turned off and a bright purple laser shot right through the wall, which the fighter crashed through a second later. The impact from the explosion further propelled Keith and the ship far above the surface of a large blue ocean, and right into the side of a cliff.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Keith couldn't figure out he was trying to destroy a ship made for living in space. Hopefully, someone will find him. I don't think he's feeling very well right now...


End file.
